6 min read
Harry's future looked bleak. Then he tried psychedelics
Harry was on life support after suffering a catastrophic aneurysm. He woke up but then faced a mental health struggle. He says psychedelics saved him — but experts warn the drugs are not a panacea.
Published 11 August 2024 6:39am
Updated 13 August 2024 2:19pm
By Cameron Carr
Source: SBS News
Image: Just over a year ago, Australia's medicines watchdog approved the use of two psychedelic substances for use in the treatment of some mental health conditions. (SBS News)
One "seemingly unimportant" day, when father Ethan and son Harry (not their real names) were out surfing, Harry made a request his dad thought nothing of at the time.
"If anything happens to me while I'm out surfing, or any other time, and if I get damaged beyond repair, promise me that you won't try and bring me back," Ethan recalled his son as saying.
Ethan told him he understood.
"I promised that I would let him die if it meant he wasn't able to lead a life on his own terms," he said.
"Looking back … that moment was the beginning of this story, and it was at that point that destiny kicked in."
In 2019, Harry suffered a catastrophic brain aneurysm.
He was flown to hospital and put into a coma for three days but showed no sign of life.
Ethan and his family wanted to respect Harry's wishes.
"It was tough having to make the call to let him die," Ethan said. "Fighting for him to come back to us, but always revisiting that conversation we had on our surfboards that seemingly unimportant day."
Miraculously, before the life support was switched off, Harry woke up.
A tough road
Harry's future looked bleak.
"The prognosis was that I wouldn't walk again, unaided or live an independent life," he said.
He was offered an intense rehabilitation schedule with physiotherapists and speech pathologists, but mentally he was struggling.
"Physically, when my body had reached its limit, it literally collapsed and stopped working. It turned off. My mind never did," he said.
"In all honesty, there have been many times when I questioned if I wanted to live, and those thoughts still occur."
Harry was in a coma for three days and showed no signs of life before he miraculously woke up. Source: iStockphoto / gorodenkoff/Getty Images
"I wasn't going to lift myself out of an aneurysm fog by putting myself into a chemically-induced one," he said.
Harry had researched psilocybin — the active ingredient in 'magic mushrooms' — after his brain injury and learned about how it has been used medically.
But there were some problems.
"We looked into it early on and found it would cost $30,000 for one session," Ethan said.
There were also very few registered practitioners able to provide psychedelic-assisted therapy.
But Harry and Ethan thought it could make a difference.
Is psychedelic-assisted therapy on the rise?
Just over a year ago, Australia's Therapeutic Goods Administration — MDMA and psilocybin — for use in the treatment of some mental health conditions.
However, it's difficult to determine how popular the treatment has become.
Dr David Graham is a fellow at the Royal Australian & New Zealand College of Psychiatrists. He's also the medical director of GoodMind Therapeutics, which offers psychedelic-assisted therapy.
He said the demand for such therapy is increasing "as more patients become aware of the treatment and seek out alternative options when they've tried other avenues and found them not providing the relief they need".
About 500,000 people in Australia used hallucinogens — primarily psilocybin — in 2022-2023, up from 1.6 per cent in 2019.
That's according to the most recent findings from the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare's National Drug Strategy Household survey, released in February. However, it did not collect data in its 2022-2023 fieldwork on the medical use of these treatments — only illicit drug use.
"Monitoring the use of hallucinogens (both medical and non‑medical) will be required to determine whether it follows a similar trajectory to cannabis in Australia," it notes.
It said 700,000 people had used cannabis for medical use but more than two-thirds (70 per cent) did so without a prescription.
"Hallucinogens may follow a similar trend now that prescriptions have been introduced," it said.
Does psychedelic-assisted therapy work?
Studies have shown that psilocybin-assisted therapy can be beneficial in relieving symptoms of treatment-resistant depression, obsessive-compulsive disorder, and post-traumatic stress disorder.
"Clinical research has provided promising evidence that MDMA and psilocybin may have therapeutic benefits in the treatment of a range of mental illnesses including treatment-resistant depression, representing about 30 per cent of people with depression and post-traumatic stress disorder," Professor Ashley Bush, the clinical lead at the Florey Mental Health Mission, said.
However, many experts in the space stress the need for continued research into the effects of psilocybin and , and for strict controls on its medical use.
"These psychedelics are not breakthrough wonder drugs," Bush said. "Many patients are still likely to have incomplete or no remission, and more research is needed to understand what the optimal dose schedule is, [such as] once off, or in multiple sessions."
Graham warned that despite positive results, accessing a full course of treatment can be challenging.
"It involves intensive psychotherapy provided by two trained psychotherapists, typically a psychiatrist and a psychologist, there are multiple sessions, and a full course of treatment can include up to 60 hours of face-to-face clinical therapy," he said.
Dr Stephen Bright, a senior lecturer of addiction at Edith Cowan University's School of Medical and Health Sciences, warned that using psychedelics for mental illness has risks, especially if used in a non-clinical setting without the support of psychotherapy.
"I have seen cases where people's mental health has actually got worse, not better, because it's not just drugs, it's the drug in the context of psychotherapy," he said.
"If the person providing the psychotherapy doesn't really know what they're doing, they could actually do more harm than good."
'Rewiring' the brain
Harry and Ethan decided to circumvent the "proper channels" to source psilocybin, afraid Harry would not live long enough to receive psychedelic-assisted therapy lawfully.
"We were lucky and had the money; we could get him what he needed straight away," Ethan said.
Five years on from his accident, Harry is in a much better place and says psilocybin has been "very helpful" in giving him a new perspective on life.
"It didn't restore my speech or help me walk properly, but it opened me up to new perspectives and gave me a glimpse of what my mind could do, versus everything I was being reminded it wouldn't ever be able to do again," he said.
"This new awareness, I believe, was instrumental in making me prioritise my physical recovery efforts even more."
Readers seeking support with mental health can contact Beyond Blue on 1300 22 4636. More information is available at .
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